North Putnam hires Daniel Noel to fill superintendent vacancy

As anticipated, the North Putnam School Board voted on Thursday to hire Daniel Noel as the new superintendent of schools, effective July 1.

Noel, 61, is currently the principal of Switzerland County High School. This will be his first time working as a superintendent. He addressed the crowd, made up primarily of school employees, following the meeting.

"We come here to work with you," Noel said. "I want to make a great team and I'm looking forward to it.

"I have a lot of ideas and sometimes you'll have to grab me by the shoulder and pull me down because I'm excited about what you guys are doing here. You have great programs here and great things that are going on and I look forward to being a part of that."

Noel and his wife, Karen, are looking forward to moving to the Putnam County area, which will bring them closer to family.

In November the board accepted the resignation of the current superintendent, Dr. Mary Sugg Lovejoy.

In February charges were filled against three North Putnam School Corporation staff members stemming from their alleged physical involvement with a student.

Board President Debbie Sillery said she did not believe this affected the search process.

"No, no. It wasn't even brought up," she said. "I've been on the board a long time and we've had lots of things come up over the years and we've never had any reluctance."

Noel, who completed his Education Specialist Degree at Indiana State University in December, believes the corporation will move quickly to correct past mistakes.

"You always have concerns, but I think we will look at it and see if we can make the proper changes and be a little more careful with our selection of personnel," he said. "We will work very hard at our background checks and keep things like that in check. You take the teachers and you work with them. You hire good people, you work with those people and you make them better."

Noel was chosen from a pool of 17 applicants.

"We worked with the University Placement Team," Sillery said. "What they do is they go through and screen all the applicants and do background checks and all of that."

The board brought interviewed five applicants then narrowed the search to a final two for a second interview before unanimously selecting Noel.

"(The board members) were all very impressed with him," Sillery said. "I think it was just that wide background that set him apart."

Noel has been a principal for 19 years, and also has experience as a teacher, coach and athletic director.

He said that although he plans to be involved with all areas of the education process, he has one main focus.

"You can build buildings and you can do this and you can do that, but the bottom line is we are all here for kids and the education they receive," Noel said.